Awakening the Hermit Kingdom

Katherine H. Lee Ahn

Description

Awakening the Hermit Kingdom: Pioneer American Women Missionaries in Korea gives a focused look at the long-ignored subject, the pioneer women missionaries to the Hermit Kingdom, as the early missionaries often called Korea. Based largely on private papers and mission reports of the missionaries, the author explores the life and work of the American women missionaries in the first quarter century of the Protestant mission in Korea. This book brings a new light to the history of Protestantism in Korea by revealing the identity and activities of the women missionaries, as well as the level of religious and social impact made by their presence and work in Korea.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• korea
• Philosophie et théologie
• Growth
• Christian Church

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780878088270
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Awakening the Hermit Kingdom: Pioneer American Women Missionaries to Korea
Copyright 2009 Katherine H. Lee Ahn. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmittedinanyformorbyanymeans-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior writtenpermissionofthepublisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by
William Carey Library
1605 E. Elizabeth Street
Pasadena, California USA 91104
www.missionbooks.org
A ministry of the
U.S. Center for World Mission
www.uscwm.org
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. 1973, 1978, 1984 by the
International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
Graphic Design: Jonathan Pon
Editorial Manager: Naomi Bradley
Assistant Editor: Johanna Deming
Cover photo courtesy of Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine and Homeopathy
Digital Ebook Release 2023
ISBN: 978-0-87808-827-0 (epub)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
For all the brave women missionaries and ministers who gave, are giving, and will give their lives to the work of the Gospel.
Contents
Foreward
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 American Protestant Missions in Korea, 1885-1907
2 The Making of Pioneer Women Missionaries for Korea
3 Journey to Korea
4 The Land of Korea and the American Missionary Women
5 Establishing Missionary Life in Korea
6 The Beginning of Women s Missionary Work in Korea, 1884-1889
7 Evangelism and the Geographical Expansion of Women s Work, 1890-1907
8 Women s Medical and Educational Work and Its Impact, 1890-1907
Conclusion
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
I t is my great pleasure to see this manuscript published and available to the public. I read the text once a few years ago in draft form and even then thought it should be published. It is timely, needed, remarkably well researched and filled with delightful detail about the lives of women missionaries. Although the book is a scholarly piece of work it is still written in story form with fascinating details about the women missionaries lives, personal struggles, and other aspects that make the reading engaging and inspiring. Dr. Ahn s book tells the story of the first twenty-three years of contact (1884-1907) between American Protestant Christian women missionaries and Korean women in a nation and culture which for two thousand years had been a Hermit Kingdom wary of foreign influence and penetration. Korean culture was paternalistic. It was dismissive of its women except for their importance in child-bearing and in the care of their households. Dr. Ahn tells from a Korean perspective how American women came with their husbands (and in many cases incomprehensively without husbands) all the way across the ocean to little isolated Korea bearing the good news of Jesus Christ to their long-neglected sisters in Korea. What happened? Well, what happened is sometimes called the Korea Miracle. This is Dr. Ahn s story-the first twenty-three years of miracle church growth.
It covers only the beginnings, but the author does it beautifully and candidly. She very clearly points out how missionary histories of those early days tend to pay much more attention to the successes of the men in the mission to the neglect of the remarkable ministry of the single women and missionary wives. She then describes in detail the level of involvement and great ministry successes women accomplished both independently and in cooperation with the male missionaries in the same country at the same time. It is no accident that the largest Christian women s university in the world is in Seoul, Korea (Ewha Women s University). Dr. Ahn helps to reveal the significance of women missionaries role and contributions behind the miracle of Christian growth in Korea.
The book has added value because its author is a Korean woman. This is foreign mission as viewed from the receiving end. Dr. Katherine Ahn, like the vast majority of Korean Christians, is Christ-centered, Biblically evangelistic and enthusiastically missional. The author clearly keeps to her subject but enriches the text with significant insights from her native Korean culture. These insights are sharpened by three important factors: the author s ethnicity, her gender and her years of residence in the United States.
This book should attract a broad readership, for it corrects decades or centuries of comparative inattention, with a few exceptions, to the role of women in church and mission history without disparaging the male side of the same history.
I most heartily commend it to your attention.
Samuel Hugh Moffett
Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics
and Mission, Emeritus
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey
Acknowledgments
I find it difficult to express adequate gratitude to the great number of people who have been contributors to completion and publishing of this book. This book could have never come to be without their patient support and assistance from various angles.
My interest in studying women in ministry and mission started at the moment I sensed my own calling to Christian ministry, and my search for historical models and cases of women in ministry continued throughout my seminary years as graduate and doctoral student. I must express my most sincere thanks to my former professors and staff at Fuller Theological Seminary where I received such a great support as a woman minister and scholar and wrote the dissertation from which this book originates. Among them comes first James Bradley, my former doctoral program mentor who has become one of my dearest life mentors for twelve years. I could have never come to this place without his continuous faith in my ability and value of my research. His patient direction, compassion, and support have given me the courage and endurance to continue the work of writing this book. Diane Bradley also contributed to the completion of this book by proof reading the original manuscript and supporting my publishing effort.
I am grateful to Wilbert Shenk for his critical input and suggestions from the view point of a renowned missiologist and for serving as a reader of the original manuscript. I also need to express gratitude to David Scholer, my former New Testament professor, who recently went to be with the Lord, and Jeannette Scholer, the former director of academic programs at Fuller. Although they did not have direct input for this book, their support of women in ministry and confidence in me have been great sources of strength in my life. My deep gratitude is also for Timothy Kiho Park, , who provided the most valuable advice regarding publishing the book. His advices have been most practical and spiritual as well, and provided me the clear guidance I needed at the most critical times in my recent years. My sincere gratitude also goes to the Church History department faculty members at Fuller, who have given me the opportunity to continue my standing at Fuller, thus allowing me to pursue teaching and writing. At the same time, I thank all the staff at Fuller, particularly Linda Peacore and Cathy Kelly of the Academic Programs Office, who have been so supportive of my calling, teaching, and writing.
I have been also helped by scholars outside of Fuller to a significant level. Dana Robertof Boston University provided the most valuable direction of how and where to start the research. Her many writings on American women missionaries not only provided valuable sources, but also served as the best models for my own research and writing. My special gratitude also goes to Samuel H. Moffett and Eileen Moffett. Both contributed to the birth and progress of this book. He served first as the external reader of the original dissertation and then later as the reader of the manuscript for the publisher. Eileen Moffett s own collection of Samuel A. Moffett s records and letters became an important primary source for this book. I am extremely blessed not only to be supported by one of the greatest mission historians of our time, but also to have been personally encouraged by the warmth of their hearts. I often picked up my writing again, because they told me, Keep writing.
This work would not have been possible without the cooperation of the numerous staff working at the many archival collections. I have been welcomed and helped with patient staff of all the archives and libraries listed in the references. I spent days at the Methodist Archive at Drew University, Presbyterian historical societies and archives both in Philadelphia and Montreat (North Carolina), Yale Divinity School Archive, and others. I was personally helped and assisted by the staff who did not mind getting precious files and copying so many papers over and over again. I also thank Howard Moffett, M.D., Samuel H. Moffett s brother and a retired medical missionary in Korea, for allowing me to interview him at his own home. It was not only the most productive interview, but also an exciting meeting with another historical figure of the Korea mission. I would also like to give my special thanks to Naomi Bradley, the new editorial director at William Carey Library. She has really made possible to speed up the publishing process, and I appreciate her experience, knowledge, efficiency, and wise advices.
The support and prayer I have received from my own family cannot be even described in any adequacy. My husband, Theodore Ahn, has always believed in the value of my study more than I have. He shouldered so many responsibilities and endured months of my absence during my research trips to help me write and make the stories of these women known to the world. My daughter s life coincides with this book. I began writing the original manuscript, when Phoebe was in my womb.